June, 2014

I think we all agree that The Ultimate Fighter has become a tired, worn out concept — to the point where even the fighters on the show don’t seem to give much of a crap any more. But women are doing their best to eliminate that not so fresh feeling from the show. TUF 18 featured bantamweight women alongside men, and TUF 20 (debuting in September) will be 100% 115-pound female goodness.

One fighter originally slated to appear on TUF 20 was Claudia Gadelha. Considered by many to be the ringer of the season, the undefeated BJJ black belt ended up being removed due to her inability to no speako de englis. But because of this switch-up, it now looks like she’ll get the honor of kicking off the women’s strawweight division when she fights victim opponent Tina Lahdemaki at UFC Fight Night 45 on July 16th.

It turns out that Claudia also has a bit of an interesting history: She is best known for a stint on Brazilian television where she fought dudes in the cage for a show called Panico Na TV. None of these guys were actually professional fighters and you can tell the goal isn’t to murderize each other. But speaking as an ill prepared TV host who once ‘fought’ Patrick Cote, this stuff can get pretty serious (at least for the poor bastards getting whupped).

The MMA world peered at Tyron Woodley‘s ass and saw “DUDE WIPES” emblazoned across his most private chasm. In that moment, an MMA meme was born.

Dude Wipes, in some ways, are the ultimate expression of the ridiculous Dude-Bro culture ingrained in MMA–or that marketers think is ingrained in MMA. Whether through derision, revulsion, or legitimate curiosity, Dude Wipes became one of the top trends on Twitter during the fights. While some were happy to simply laugh at Dude Wipes and write them off as some kind of oddity, CagePotato wanted to know more. Myself and everyone else on the CagePotato editorial staff will never let it be said we won’t go to any heights (or depths) to the get stories that matter most to MMA. Dude Wipes, we believed, was one of those stories.

Thus, I went out to Walgreens and Target the morning after UFC 174, but found no Dude Wipes. Dejected, I resorted to making a post about them citing several Amazon reviews. But fate tossed me a life preserver in the shape of a Dude Wipe. Dude Products, makers of Dude Wipes, found out about my dilemma and hooked me up. I was excited to get my hands (and butt cheeks) on some Dude Wipes. Check them out:

I also got two wristbands that say “Fresh ass dude” and “#DudeWipes” on them; they’re shown in the video.

So how did they measure up to my expectations? Find out after the jump.

(Can you not see the hydrochlorothiazide COURSING THROUGH HIS VEINS??? / Photo via Getty)

Louis Gaudinot‘s 73-second submission win over Phil Harris at UFC Fight Night 37 has been overturned into a no contest. This comes off the back of Gaudinot’s drug test failure; he tested positive for the banned diuretic hydrochlorothiazide. As the event took place in the UK, it was the UFC that handed him a six month suspension rather than an athletic commission.

Gaudinot issued a statement not long after the news of his drug test failure and suspension broke…

It’s been a rough couple of years for Brazilian special forces officer turned MMA fighter Paulo Thiago. Actually, make that a rough half decade or so. After kicking off his UFC career with an improbable knockout of Josh Koscheck and wins over Jacob Volkmann and Mike Swick, Thiago has dropped six of his past eight contests since 2010, including decision losses to Diego Sanchez and Dong Hyun Kim and brutal stoppage losses to Siyar Bahadurzada and Brandon Thatch. Most recently, Thiago was outpointed by Gasan Umalatov at the TUF Brazil 3 Finale, leading us to believe that he would likely be headed for the door.

Chapter four in our 25-part series on Fitness Motivation photos focuses on kettlebells — the heavy things with the handles that collect dust at gyms across the country. Specifically, we’ll be looking at hot girls lifting kettlebells, because hey, it’s CagePotato.

Whether you’re looking to sculpt the perfect beach body or look like a Russian bear-man, kettlebell exercises are great way to strengthen your core. So without further ado, check out our favorite photos of kettlebell babes in the gallery after the jump, and shoot us your suggestions for future Fitness Motivation galleries in the comments.

We know that the UFC is a sports entertainment company, but few fighters have ever embraced sports entertainment as fully as the recently retired Chael Sonnen had. “The Gangster from West Linn” understood the importance of drawing attention outside the cage, and shamelessly promoted himself as one of the most outlandish heels on the planet. But now that his fighting days are behind him, how will the fans remember Sonnen? There’s little doubt that Sonnen was one of MMA’s most infamous personalities, but was Sonnen a truly great sports entertainer?

Before we begin analyzing Sonnen’s smack-talking, fake championship belt wielding antics however, let’s not forget the overwhelming majority of his career: the thirty-plus professional fights (including his initial 1-2 run in the UFC) he had between 1997 and 2008. During this time, Chael Sonnen was a name that only the most hardcore fans had known of. He was a skilled, albeit smothering (and submission-prone) wrestler who could dish out one-liners and give thoughtful interviews, but was mostly known for his part in the unmitigated disaster that was Filho vs. Sonnen II.

If that seemed like a half-assed recap of twelve years of fighting, that’s exactly the point. Despite the best attempts of MMA fans to pretend that they’re above valuing personality over talent, the relative obscurity of Sonnen’s “pre-heel” career proved otherwise. If it weren’t for his ability to give a memorable interview, it isn’t entirely unreasonable to wonder if he would have even been invited back to the promotion when the WEC did away with the middleweight division. It’s even more likely that he would have been cut after getting choked out in the first round by Demian Maia during his Octagon return at UFC 95. The bottom line is, one doesn’t need to be entertained by Sonnen’s attempts to stand out in order to acknowledge their importance; Sonnen pretty much told Thomas Gerbasi just that back in 2010:

“You listen to some of these guys and it’s like hitting ‘play’ on a tape recorder. Whether these guys just aren’t free thinkers or just scared, I truthfully don’t know, but it is pretty annoying. Every now and then you get a guy that appears that he’s read a book or watched a news program and has an autonomous thought, and those are the kind of guys that I would visit with, but it’s pretty hard to find them in a UFC locker room.”

It might be hard to believe when looking at him now, but there was a time not too long ago when Tim Sylvia was paid money to compete in physical activities. I know right? I’m seriously. It was the mid-2000′s, and ”The Maine-iac” weighed in at a svelte 265 pounds. He was also the UFC Heavyweight champion, but looking back, I think the former accomplishment is arguably more impressive than the latter.

Regardless, after testing positive for stanozolol in his second title defense over Gan McGee at UFC 44, Sylvia would voluntarily relinquish his belt in disgrace*…and wind up receiving an immediate fight against Frank Mir for the belt he had just vacated at UFC 48 on June 19th, 2004 — ten years ago today.

“That’s right. The fucking unabomber. Ted would have been in California exactly 1 year and a month before nick was born (blowing up some poor fucker at university of cal/berkeley. And while I know it’s a stretch based off that little information. Check out this picture of a young Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski. (I know.. mind blowing) This would also explain Nick’s anxiety when it comes to social interactions and hatred for authority. It’s in his genes. He is programmed from the womb this way…..You’re welcome!

Unfortunately for High, his moment of cloudy judgement had already seen him axed from the UFC before Dana White could even review the footage of the incident. And now, the hits just keep on coming for “The Kansas City Bandit”, who might want to consider changing his nickname to “H.R. Shoven Stuff” (I am so sorry). High was handed down a one year suspension from the New Mexico Athletic Commission for his err in judgment and fined 10% of his $19,000 purse, or $1,900. But that’s just a small price to pay for notoriety, amiright?

It’s a relatively unheard of suspension given the nature of High’s infraction. I can only think of a couple altercations between referees and fighters over the years that didn’t involve Gilbert Yvel — one was James Thompson/Dan Miragliotta at EliteXC: Primetime and the other was Phil Baroni/Larry Landless at UFC 45. While no punishment was given to Thompson for smushing Miragliotta’s face, Baroni actually punched Landless and received just a 4 month suspension for doing so. Diff’rent era, diff’rent rules, I guess.